JPII hype is utter and complete bollocks. The truth is that's the guy who:

1. all his life strove hard to undo the liberal Second Vatican Council reforms and replace it with a hard, well-defined and centred party line
2. was best buddies with leading right-wing dictators in South America
3. did his best to destroy liberation theology
4. engaged in an 'ecumenic' dialogue - which in truth was an uneasy conversation with Judaism and Orthodox and Protestant Christianity; no other denomination proved good enough. His portrayal of Buddhism in Crossing the Threshold of Hope is as scathing as it is wildly inaccurate
5. worked very, very hard against the so-called 'civilization of death' (cf. the 'rotten West' Stalinists ranted about) - which was/is in fact the liberal, tolerance-based kind of society most of us take for granted these days
6. fought to limit the use of contraceptives, the move that proved particularly fatal in Africa, for obvious reasons
7. was misogynistic to the very bone
8. regularly covered sex abuse scandals

JPII hype is utter and complete bollocks. The truth is that's the guy who:

1. all his life strove hard to undo the liberal Second Vatican Council reforms and replace it with a hard, well-defined and centred party line
2. was best buddies with leading right-wing dictators in South America
3. did his best to destroy liberation theology
4. engaged in an 'ecumenic' dialogue - which in truth was an uneasy conversation with Judaism and Orthodox and Protestant Christianity; no other denomination proved good enough. His portrayal of Buddhism in Crossing the Threshold of Hope is as scathing as it is wildly inaccurate
5. worked very, very hard against the so-called 'civilization of death' (cf. the 'rotten West' Stalinists ranted about) - which was/is in fact the liberal, tolerance-based kind of society most of us take for granted these days
6. fought to limit the use of contraceptives, the move that proved particularly fatal in Africa, for obvious reasons
7. was misogynistic to the very bone
8. regularly covered sex abuse scandals

Quite a paragon of virtue indeed.

That's not the point. Laughing and insulting leaders of other religions is a stupid and immature thing to do as it breeds hatred and anger. A fine example would be the Danish cartoons on Mohammad.

seeker242 wrote:FWIW, 99.9% of all human beings are pretty stupid, regardless of nationality! It's better to look at one's own stupidity rather than someone else's IMO. There is more than enough stupidity right in the mirror, enough to keep one busy for many lifetimes.

... and once we cure the stupidity we can start working to eradicate the ignorance, greed and aversion. We could be here for quite some time, folks.